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News Roundup
Weekly Briefs: Biden’s longest-waiting judicial nominee confirmed; Trump’s ‘wack job’ comment added to defamation suit
Dale Ho’s nomination to the Southern District of New York had been pending for nearly two years. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
ACLU lawyer is confirmed to judgeship after long wait
After a wait of about 650 days, ACLU voting-rights lawyer Dale Ho has been confirmed as a federal judge in the Southern District of New York. Ho was the Biden administration’s longest-waiting judicial nominee. Republicans claimed Ho was a poor choice because of his social media posts criticizing GOP senators and policies. Ho was rated as “well qualified” by a substantial majority of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, with a minority finding him “qualified.” (Law.com, Reuters via How Appealing)
Town justices should be lawyers, state bar says
The New York State Bar Association is recommending that town and village courts be consolidated and headed by lawyers with at least five years of practice experience. Currently, nonlawyers are allowed to serve as judges on the courts. (NYSBA press release)
Trump’s new ‘wack job’ comment allowed in defamation suit
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of Manhattan has allowed writer E. Jean Carroll to amend one of her two lawsuits against Donald Trump to allege the former president defamed her last month when he called her a “wack job” and said her sexual assault allegations against him were a “made-up story.” Trump made the comments on CNN after jurors in Carroll’s other lawsuit found Trump liable for $5 million for sexually assaulting—but not raping—Carroll in a Bergdorf Bergman dressing room in the 1990s. (The New York Times, Axios, the June 13 decision)
Expert: Ex-lawyer Girardi is competent to stand trial
A prosecution expert has deemed disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi competent to stand trial for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from clients, according to a filing in Los Angeles federal court. Girardi is the estranged husband of Real Housewives star Erika Girardi. He has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. (Law360, the Los Angeles Daily News)
Order detailing alleged outbursts by judge remains intact
Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Carmen E. Garza has failed in her bid for review of a Sept. 14 order that summarized workplace allegations against her, including that she engaged in “unpredictable and hypercritical outbursts.” Garza had contended a committee investigating her should not have published preliminary findings after the probe was dropped due to her failure to win reappointment. The U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability rejected Garza’s request, saying the order made clear there were no resolution on the merits and no final findings of misconduct. (Bloomberg Law, Law.com, the May 19 order denying review)
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